Please excuse me if I have it wrong but my impression is that the only time you and others are concerned about the welfare of the children of Gaza is when you can somehow blame their situation on the Israelis. I suppose I wouldn't have this impression if every now and then you might acknowledge that perhaps the Hamas share some small part of the responsibility for the welfare of their own children. I might be even more disabused of my impression if their unwillingness to allow UNICEF to sign a contract with an Israeli company to build a desalinization plant that would supply clean water to the thirsty children of Gaza, met with a smidgen of disapproval on your part rather than with more whitewashing, excuses and pathetic justifications.

Habesor, I walked into discussen about children in Gaza being malnourished and deprived of normal life that children usually enjoy. You are pushing one aspect of the story -UNICEF and Israeli company willing to...

The quote bellow is about sewage system destroyed in Operation Cast Lead. You are evading important points by going on about Hamas.. etc.. but who destroyed sewage system and other infrastructure? They can fix this first in order to start rebuilding some kind of trust.

Gaza's broken sewage system, severely destroyed in Operation Cast Lead, has lead to open cesspits and waste-caused nitrate pollution. The high levels of nitrates in the water, ten times the safe levels established by WHO, have been linked to anemia and some cancers, and are wreaking health havoc heavily upon children and pregnant women in Gaza, the reports details."-link for it in post 24.

Life of Luxury in “World’s Largest Concentration Camp”June 17, 2012 12:54 by Pesach Benson

Monaco or Gaza? The Economist notes this slice of life from “the world’s largest concentration camp.”

In the meantime, Hamas leaders seem increasingly content to enjoy the fruits of splendid isolation. The parliamentary car park, full of rickety bangers when Hamas first took office, now gleams with flash new models hauled through the tunnels under the Egyptian border. Two Hummer H3s and a golden Porsche were recently spotted cruising the streets. Ministers and members of parliament seem unbothered by the lack of accountability as well as reports of money-laundering. “We’re hunted and targeted,” explains a self-pitying MP on Hamas’s parliamentary ethics committee, who recently spent $28,000 on a new car with the help of a $12,000 loan from the movement.

I wish more hunted Hamas members were dumb enough to drive around Gaza in shiny gold Porsches.

The IDF pulled out of Gaza along with all of the Jewish settlers there. The response of Hamas was to initiate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians living within the Green Line. You wrote:

"...but who destroyed sewage system and other infrastructure? They can fix this first in order to start rebuilding some kind of trust."

We in Israel have spent perhaps one hundred million dollars in defensive structures so that our civilians have protection against Hamas rocket attacks. I think that before we spend a dime on anything in Gaza, "to build trust", though why withdrawing the IDF and all settlers didn't build trust you don't explain, it is only right for the Hamas to act in some way that builds trust. Don't you think that is the only fair thing here?

In the meantime, the Hamas, according to Electronic Intifada, have refused to allow UNESCO to supply clean water to the children of Gaza because it might benefit the Israelis. That is not a trust building behavior on the part of Hamas. Your refusal to condemn the Hamas for this devaluation of their own children's welfare is not exactly a trust building action either. Dos, are you also one of those "humanitarians" who judge Middle Eastern events only in terms of how they can be used to bash Israel? It seems that your concern for the state of the Gaza sewage system only relates to how you can use it to blame Israel. You seem to show no concern for the Palestinian children's lack of drinking water or the Hamas decision to perpetuate that lack.

' Dos, are you also one of those "humanitarians" who judge Middle Eastern events only in terms of how they can be used to bash Israel? It seems that your concern for the state of the Gaza sewage system only relates to how you can use it to blame Israel. You seem to show no concern for the Palestinian children's lack of drinking water or the Hamas decision to perpetuate that lack.'

Habesor you are wrong. You have this 'bash Israel' in your mind and everything is colored by this. You did not deny that Israel destroyed sewage system and a lot more but went ot blame Hamas etc..

Your argument is just because Palestinians deny Israeli company to built desalination plant they don't love their children.

You would not trust your enemy neither would I, why should they. It might all change in 50ys time but for now it is reality.

You spend much time and effort bashing Israel. You do not have one word of criticism for the Palestinians. The Hamas officials are blocking the construction of a desalinization plant because an Israeli company might make some profit. So, perhaps you could criticize this Hamas position which adversely effects the wellbeing of Gaza's stunted children; rather than seeking to "explain" why the Hamas position is justified.

You keep referring to Israel as Gaza's 'enemy', Dos. The Israelis do not feel that way about the Gazan people - only about HAMAS, and only because HAMAS declares in its Charter (its declaration of purposes, etc) that HAMAS exists to destroy Israel, which it doesn't even name or call a 'state' but refers to 'the Zionist entity'.

So it is HAMAS which defines itself as 'enemy of Israel' for(part of) it's raison d'etre.

What you seem unable to recognize, Dos, is that neither the Israeli people nor the government has defined themselves as 'enemy of Gaza'. So it is not 'reciprocal' - which some have claimed.

And as long as someone makes excuses for rockets coming out of Gaza aimed at the children of Sderot and other Negev towns, I don't see where they are being at all 'pacifist' or realistic.

Incidentally, refusing to let the people who can build Gaza the desalination plant best, fastest AND cheapest is exactly 'not loving their children': the result is condemning the children to shortages of potable water for even longer. And why? Simply to refuse to deal with Israel.

DUH - If they won't even let the Israelis build the infrastructure their children NEED NOW - on someone else's dime! - what does that say about the Gazan 'GOVERNMENT' having any desire for peace with Israel????

I believe the phrase 'cutting off one's nose to spite one's face' was invented for just such occasions......